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MonoGame

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MonoGame vs Unity: What are the differences?

# Introduction

1. **Programming Language**: MonoGame is written in C# while Unity uses C# and UnityScript for scripting.
2. **Platform Support**: MonoGame supports more platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, whereas Unity supports these platforms as well as consoles like PlayStation and Xbox.
3. **Ease of Use**: Unity provides a more user-friendly interface and visual scripting tools making it easier for beginners to create games, while MonoGame requires more coding and understanding of game development principles.
4. **Cost**: MonoGame is an open-source framework, making it free to use, whereas Unity has different pricing tiers including a free version with limitations and paid subscriptions for more advanced features.
5. **Community and Support**: Unity has a larger community and more resources available, including asset store with plugins and tools, while MonoGame has a smaller community but dedicated developers who offer support.
6. **Customization**: MonoGame offers more flexibility and customization options for developers who want to have full control over their game development process, whereas Unity provides a more streamlined approach with predefined workflows and features.

In Summary, MonoGame and Unity differ in terms of programming language, platform support, ease of use, cost, community support, and customization options available to developers.
Decisions about MonoGame and Unity
norlin
Software Engineer / Game Developer at Norlin Games · | 7 upvotes · 89.4K views

When I started to learn game development, I've tried to use Unity multiple times because it's the most popular option. But never get it worked because of the clunky UI which is very hard to understand for a new user. After some time, I've decided to try UE4 despite there was a lot of rumors that it's "heavy" or requires an AAA team. And suddenly it clicked, everything works as I expecting, UI is clear and much more powerfull, no need to build custom tools to work on the game itself. Blueprints are very helpful for beginners, C++ has a lot of "syntax-sugar" - macroses, a lot of convenient in-engine types for everything. Later while working with Unreal, I've realized it has very consistent roadmap with constant improvements and adding new features. At the same time, each major version update is painless so you can upgrade your project during development to get new features. UE4 is free to use with the full list of features and you only have to pay royalty after getting your first $1 million from the project (and that's just the default case, you can always discuss custom license with an upfront fee, if you want to).

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Arthur Osipyan
Software Engineer at Value Industry · | 2 upvotes · 86.9K views

I chose Unity over Unreal Engine because Unity has a more user friendly UI for beginners looking to learn game development. Additionally, as someone who uses a lot of online resources to learn new languages and tools, I found a lot of tutorials covering game development with Unity as the core engine. This doesn't mean Unreal is not a great choice for game development, I just personally found learning game development much smoother with the amount of resources available with Unity.

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Pros of MonoGame
Pros of Unity
  • 1
    Cross-platform
  • 16
    Because it's a powerful engine, you can build anything
  • 14
    C# language
  • 12
    Very Popular
  • 7
    Easy to Use
  • 6
    He Has A Free VErsion
  • 6
    Cross Platform
  • 5
    2nd Game Engine In The World
  • 4
    Good Choise
  • 4
    Very Large Showcase

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Cons of MonoGame
Cons of Unity
  • 1
    Can't working in vs mac 2019
  • 1
    No GUI
  • 4
    Hard to get started with
  • 4
    Clunky UI
  • 4
    Closed source
  • 3
    No consistency with updates
  • 3
    Requires to build a lot of tools
  • 2
    Gigantic by being 9gb (thats what setup says)

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What is MonoGame?

It is a free C# framework used by game developers to make games for multiple platforms and other systems. It is also used to make Windows and Windows Phone games run on other systems.

What is Unity?

Unity is the ultimate game development platform. Use Unity to build high-quality 3D and 2D games, deploy them across mobile, desktop, VR/AR, consoles or the Web, and connect with loyal and enthusiastic players and customers.

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What companies use MonoGame?
What companies use Unity?
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What are some alternatives to MonoGame and Unity?
libGDX
The framework provides an environment for rapid prototyping and fast iterations. Instead of deploying to Android/iOS/Javascript after each code change, you can run and debug your game on the desktop, natively. Desktop JVM features like code hotswapping reduce your iteration times considerably.
Xamarin
Xamarin’s Mono-based products enable .NET developers to use their existing code, libraries and tools (including Visual Studio*), as well as skills in .NET and the C# programming language, to create mobile applications for the industry’s most widely-used mobile devices, including Android-based smartphones and tablets, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
Godot
It is an advanced, feature-packed, multi-platform 2D and 3D open source game engine. It is developed by hundreds of contributors from all around the world.
SDL
It is a cross-platform development library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, and graphics hardware via OpenGL and Direct3D.
JavaScript
JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.
See all alternatives